Adopting a Managerial Mindset: A Guide for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs aren’t usually the best managers, as the two roles require different skills and mindsets. Managers deal with numbers and current events in a company. Entrepreneurs set goals and provide everyone with their visions of the companies’ future. However, it doesn’t mean a visionary can’t adopt a managerial mindset. Speaking more specifically, there are 4 things to take up to achieve the goal.

Start Using Numbers

No matter the nationality or the field of business, everyone understands the language of numbers. So, one who talks numbers and follows the statistics usually draws more trust, which is an important factor for any company.

According to the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the best performing companies win by 6% in profit and 5% in productivity due to the number-based decision making. So, before setting a new goal or while assessing the work of your company, make sure to measure everything that can be measured.

Put Some Effort into Study

It’s never late to study something new, and in modern times you don’t have to go to the university for your second degree. Use technology to study the essentials of management on the go. There are plenty of articles on the Internet to help you with that, just as these articles on small business and entrepreneurship give insights into the mentioned field. A blogger Daniela Bucatele gathered the essentials in that collection – do the same and gather yours on management.

Build Statistics and Compare Numbers

Compare the data from different years, including the forecasts on the nearest future. This will help you see all the problems your company has, see what works well and what doesn’t, and improve your forecasting. That being said, don’t be focused only on one department or one problem. Don’t hang there for a long time, as you may miss the more valuable trends/problems emerging.

Neglecting this point can lead to the so-called “iceberg of ignorance”, perfectly depicted in the study with the same name by Sidney Yoshida. It shows that only about 4% of top managers know about the most important problems in the company.

Make Your Goals for Each Level of Management Clear

Make sure your goals for all departments and levels of management are separate and clear. But they all have to be parts of a larger objective of the company. This applies to middle and lower levels of management. Top managers can adopt broader goals and be fine, but the lower you go, the clearer and smaller the assignment should be.

When you achieve such a work scheme where every department works separately, but the broader target is eventually achieved, you’ll prove you have developed a great managerial mindset.

Being a good manager will help you improve your company’s productivity, which will also help it get to the new heights faster. Even if you already have a manager, such a skillset is something every entrepreneur should have for himself. After all, when building a startup, the head of the company is also the top manager.